'Magic Mushrooms' Not Linked to Mental Health Problems: Study

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Using psychedelic drugs, such as LSD and "magic mushrooms," does
not appear to increase the risk of developing mental health
problems, a new study suggests.

The study researchers analyzed information from more than 130,000
people in the United States, about 22,000 of whom had used
psychedelic drugs at least once in the past.

Participants were asked questions to gauge whether they had
needed mental health treatment in the last year, or experienced
symptoms of conditions, including panic disorder, major
depressive episode, mania, social phobia and post-traumatic
stress disorder.

At first, the results showed that mental health problems were
more common among people who had used psychedelic drugs. But then
the researchers accounted for a number of factors that could
affect the results, such as age, gender and participants'
experience with any extremely stressful life event, which can
affect the risk of mental health problems. With those factors
accounted for, the researchers found that people who had used
psychedelics were no more likely to develop mental health
problems than those who hadn't used the drugs. [ The
10 Most Controversial Psychiatric Disorders ]

In some instances, use of psychedelic drugs appeared beneficial
for mental health. For instance, people who had used psilocybin
( the
hallucinogen found in magic mushrooms ), or mescaline, a
similar drug, had a lower rate of serious psychological distress
than the no-psychedelics group, the researchers said.

However, because the study looked at the effect of psychedelics
on a large population, it's impossible to say what the effect on
a given individual will be. Some individuals may experience
negative effects from the drugs not seen in this study, because
these effects were statistically hidden by the number of people
experiencing no negative or positive effects, the researchers
said.

Previous studies have suggested that
magic mushrooms may have benefits for anxiety and depression,
particularly among people who are terminally ill. However, the
drugs can cause unwanted side effects during use, such as
paranoia and delusions.

Study researcher Pål-Ørjan Johansen, from the Norwegian
University of Science and Technology, said: "Psychedelics can
elicit temporary feelings of anxiety and confusion, but accidents
leading to serious injury are extremely rare."